UK-based rental and resale peer-to-peer platform, By Rotation, is focused on further growth after raising €2.7 million via seed funding.
The company, which allows consumers to lend and rent their clothing to others, has received the backing of Redrice Ventures – with additional investor support from Closed Loop Partners, True Global, Magnus Rausing, Bill Holroyd, DL, June Angelides, Dinika Mahtani, and Riccardo Pozzoli.
Launched by Eshita Kabra in 2019, By Rotation is contributing to the rental and resale movement in retail – one that reflects a move away from fast fashion and excessive consumption to one that focuses on sustainability and community.
Journalist Stacey Dooley, actress Nicola Coughlan, athlete Dina Asher-Smith, and model and TV presenter Katie Piper are among its celebrity fans to date.
Last year, By Rotation opened a pop-up at Westfield which showcased top items from the app. The space also provided a platform to run panel discussions, workshops and sustainability masterclasses for consumers interested in more circular fashion.
Caroline Brown, managing director at Closed Loop Partners, a New York-based investment company focused on the circular economy, said: “By Rotation offers a beautiful solution for today’s fashion consumers that merges the best of social media, peer to peer commerce for a modernised rental and resale experience.
“The result is an elegant platform that reinspires shoppers to build communities around the products they love while keeping them in use longer. This is a great model for the future of commerce.”
Commenting on the funding round, Kabra wrote on LinkedIn: “While acknowledging and celebrating this milestone, I’m very excited by the commercial validation of our fresh approach to fashion rental – via a social network (“Instagram of fashion rental”) and the sharing economy – and the work ahead of us in continuing to develop our community and product in the most innovative methods within the industry.
“To Team BR [By Rotation], my family, friends and our investors (50% of our investors are women and more than half are of ethnic minorities): thank you for your belief, commitment, dedication and support throughout this wild journey. As you know, this is only the beginning of a very exciting and important mission.”
[Image credit: Green Retail World]
